Another Year
by CohenTheKitty
Summary: Collins Angel Fluff fans rejoice! A companion fic to It's Beginning To Snow, it starts from Angel waking up in the hospital and will cover Collins and Angel's 1 or years in Santa Fe! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

_Another Year _

_CohenTheKitty_

_Chapter One_

_A Santa Fe State Of Mind_

AN- Thank you SO MUCH to all those who reviewed 'It's Beginning To Snow'! This story is a companion fic to talk about the year and some odd months from October (when Angel would have been nursed back to health) to the December that 'It's Beginning To Snow' takes place in.

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Eyes, eyes. Why couldn't he stop thinking of eyes? Oh, dammit, this was so useless. Or wait. No. He wanted to open his eyes. That was it. Open them up. Just open up your eyes and see why the hell this room is so warm. Maybe Collins had accidentally rolled onto him. That was it, probably. With a good effort he opened his eyes to whiteness and then felt a little sadness enter his heart. The hospital, he remembered now, how sick he was. How his lover had never left his side.

Angel managed to steer his eyes to his love and lifted a shaky, weak hand to touch that prickly, pudgy face. A little twitch, and then Tom Collins jumped up and looked at him, his shocked expression quickly turning to one of surprise and then glee as a large very Collins smile covered his entire face. He moved to be able to hold Angel close and kissed him softly, his glee turning to an emotion which Angel could give no name to. But whatever it was called, it was making Collins cry.

He frowned and nudged Collins so he would move back a bit. Angel studied that face that he loved so much and managed to ask him in a barely audible, almost masculine voice. "Tommy? What's wrong?"

Collins looked at him and shook his head, he pointed to the clock and Angel's gaze moved from Collins, to the clock and then back to Collins again. "That clock still says it's October 31st. If you hadn't woken up. . ."

Angel shook his head and smiled up at Collins, reached and covered both of Collins cheeks with his pale, soft hands. "No, sugar. I'm not ready to go yet." He tugged for Collins to join him in the bed, and he did. Then he curled up into his arms as best as he could with all those damn machines attatched to him. "No, no, not yet. Not me. It was the flu, and now I feel much better. I could really use a drink tho. . ."

Collins laughed. It was warm and gentle, soft and steady. It made Angel smile and he tried to snuggle closer but the sharp pain from his IV told him to do otherwise. Collins bent his head and kissed the top of Angel's, slid his arms tighter around him and snuggled closer since his lover couldn't. "I've been up so many nights, so worried. And you're gonna be fine! You really are, baby. You don't know how happy I am. . . ."

A silence followed hi exclamation for a long while until Angel piped up softly. "I'm gonna get sick again, Tommy."

"No. . .!"

"Yes, you know it's true. I'm not as strong now and this is New York for crying out loud!"

"Well then we'll _move_!" Collins insisted desperately, his arms clinging around Angel, tears starting to leak down his face again but for different reasons than the last few had.

Angel was very surprised by this outburst but she looked upo at him curiously now. "Move? Where could we ever move? We have no place to go. . ." He said, his voice growing softer and the softer the more he spoke out loud. He was growing drowsy suddenly and he realized a nurse was injecting something into his drip, he faintly heard Collins singing, and as his eyes slid shut, he realized it was only a memory dancing through his mind, Collins voice in song.

_"We'll open up a reastaurant in Santa Fe. . ."_

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Again, Angel willed himself to open his eyes and instead of seeing Collins next to him, he felt the larger man holding onto him tightly. He stirred quite a bit so he could turn and look at Collins, reached to gently caress his cheek. "Tommy wake up, Tommy I'm awake. Tommy. . . .Tommy!. . .Tommy????" Urgency turned to despair and he soon realized he had shaken his lover too hard when Collins hit the floor with a cry of pain.

"Ow! I didn't steal the blanket, what the- . . ?" He blinked and rubbed his eyes, looked at the tiny, feminine/masculine face looking down at him with curiosity and worry. He began to tap his foot where he sat. "Well I say!"

"I didn't mean to!" Angel, said, biting his lip as Collins stood. "Really, honest! You wouldn't wake up and I got so scared! And then before I knew it you were going down and talking and rubbing your butt. . ."

Collins laughed and nodded, got into bed with him again and made sure he was covered plenty. "Well I was about to moan about having to wake up when I fell off, but I'm fine honey. I'm sorry I scared you. Why did you want me up?" He asked softly, nuzzling Angel's neck like a cat in need of some serious attention. Angel giggled at the feeling, realizing how much he'd missed it, he laid across Collins.

"Well you never finished what you were saying. They put me out. . ."

"Oh right." A lift shift under the covers. "Well I said I didn't know where we'd go."

Angel shifted from right to left a few times and looked as far back to Collins as he could make his head go. "Is that your chalk, or are you just happy to see me?"

A devilish grin from the computer-geek professor. "Really wanna know?"

"After we talk about moving."

Slight disappointment, but a nod of agreement. Angel turned as far onto his side as he could. "Well I had a thought. What about that restaurant we talked about? We could open up a little diner, you know? I could cook, you could wait. It'd be money i nthe bank and Santa Fe is warm. . ."

Collins tilted his head in curiosity. "Wow, you have thought about this. Well I mean sure, we can work on finding property and getting a loan right now. Are you sure you really wanna leave New York City behind though?" His gentle, sweet eyes were uneasy at that prospect.

Angel took a long moment to think to herself and then nodded softly. "Yes, I'm sure. Staying here would be nice, my friends are all here, but I want to spend as much time with you as I can, and not getting sick will help me with that. Let's move, let's find that property and nail that loan and be on our way to the rest of our lives together!"

Collins laughed very softly at her antics and nodded, kissed her temple and listened as a nurse came in and gave the news- Angel could go home by the weekend! Maybe this was it, maybe this was supposed to happen. Maybe this is what would truly draw them together forever. He nodded in agreeement much later in the night as Angel slept and he held him, and he decided that in the morning, he would start to make some phone calls.

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(One Month Later)

Collins loaded the last of his and Angel's bags into the side compartment of the Greyhound set to drive him and his drag queen lover to New York. He watched as she hugged Mimi tightly and then hugged Roger and Mark, then Benny and Allison (whom Angel had grown semi-close to in the weeks before Angel had grown ill). She sighed out deeply and clicked away to get on the bus, waited on the steps as Collins hugged his friends as well and promised to call and write as often as he could.

Once on the bus he sat next to Angel with a smile, slid his arms around her and inhaled the skin on her neck where the wispy wig hairs didn't cover it. She giggled and leant into his touch as he whispered lightly into her ear. "When did I tell you that you could have the window seat?"

"Twice," Angel said with a laugh. "When you promised to be mine forever and in the cab on the way here."

"Oh." He smiled and kissed her neck softly. "Well then I guess I'll just have to be as happy as I am forever."

"Oh Tommy, you're so weird!" She said, giggling when his beard hairs tickled her neck. She scrunched it up between her neck and shoulders, giggling, oblivious to the fact that everyone else on the bus was staring at the pretty blonde hispanic and her awkward black lover. She wouldn't have cared anyway, Angel Schunard had a _dirty_ mind and she put it to use as often as she pleased.

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	2. Chapter 2

_Another Year_

_CohenTheKitty_

_CHapter Two _

_No Hablo Español, Chica (I Don't Speak Spanish, Girl)_

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Santa Fe was a warm, bright awakening that Angel and Collins were both thrilled to be woken by. Angel practically ran off of the bus into the sun and triwled, laughing gleefully. She looked around at the people and everything else surrounding her in the warmer climate and then turned to Collins as he got their luggage and moved to stand next to her. "It's so wonderful, and I don't even know what it's like yet!"

He smiled and bent to kiss the very tip of her tiny nose. At some point while he was asleep she had gone back from blonde to the shorter dark hair. He thought she was stunning. "We need to figure out where we need to go, so maybe you should talk to someone." He said with an affirmative nod.

She was confused. "Well why do I need to, why can't you?"

"For one I'm carrying everything and let's face it baby, I'm jolly and a giant but no jolly green giant and I don't speak any Spanish."

"Oh." _So apparently he's moved us somewhere he doesn't speak the language. Weird, it's in one of the United States._ She approached a Greyhound worker, a chubby Mexican man with a name tag that read 'Gomez'. She smiled at him and pushed some hair from her face.

"**¡**Hóla! ¿Puede ayudarme? ¿Dónde está . . .?"

Gomez shook his head and waved his hands suddenly. "Uh, No Hablo Español, chica."

Angel blinked and nodded. "Sorry, can you tell me where this is?" She asked, holding out the piece of paper their new address was written on. The man pointed in the direction as he spoke and explained to her and finally he said goodbye and went back to his job. Angel led Collins tentatively until they reached the small building on the corner of two small, filthy streets. Angel ran for it, laughing to herself as she viewed it, sizing it up to her ezpectations mentally.

Collins approached her, drawing the key from his pocket. He set their things at the stoop and slid his arms around her from behind, kissing her neck softly. "Well? Does it measure up?"

"Oh it's even better Tommy!" She said, turning to leap into his arms, kissing him lovingly, giggling as they attracted attention from every new neighbor they had. Angel smiled at the incredulous looks, recognizing 'Oh my God is that a **_man_**!!!?' the best. She gave a sweet wave. "Hi everyone! Mucho gusto!"

Tom unlocked the door with one hand and carried her inside, smiling as he listened to her bemused laughter. He set her down and retrieved their few things, then shut the door behind them. "Well baby, welcome home. Well, ok, home is on the other side of the building, this is where we're gonna work."

She looked around, trailing her finger across counters and stools, dusty. She wondered how long this place had been out of commission but she didn't really care. She was happy to be there and didn't want to know anything about it's past. She didn't think Collins had bothered finding out anyway. "It's going to be perfect."

"That's rich!" Collins said with a laugh. "Supposing we can get it up and going!"

"Tom, this is New Mexico. They eat McDonalds and really bad Mexican food because Mexicans don't want to start restaurants here where Americans can steal recipes. They need some good Dominican cooking! You just wait and see, I'm telling you. Opening day will come, and that door," she pointed to it with a smug grin. "Is going to be PACKED!"

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Collins was handing Angel $5 bill moments after they had opened to a packed house, and Angel stuck it hastily into her apron and told him to get to waiting tables! He dropped his orders off a few moments later and started chatting it up with several tables until the food was done and he could serve it, move to another table until they had eaten, and repeat the process. They closed with over $100 in tips alone, and Angel sat on a stool and sighed tiredly.

"I told you so."

"I know you did."

"You owe me. . ."

"I paid you."

"Oh. . .yeah." She laughed and moved from her place to sit on his lap, draped her arms around his neck. "You know i love you."

"Of course, I never doubted that for a minute."

"What about a second?"

"Well . . ." He played thoughtful. She smacked his shoulder- HARD.

"Ow."

His cry of pain was short, because her lips were on his pretty fast.

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I know it's short, reviews anyway?


	3. Chapter 3

_Another Year_

_CohenTheKitty_

_Chapter Three_

_Christmas Bells_

AN- Thank you SO much to my beloved reviewers! A new story should be up tonight with more than just Ang/Col.

Come December the pair had made a reasonable profit and the restaurant had a permanent name that Angel couldn't possibly be any prouder of. Collins put the new sign up at the beginning of December. It read 'Bohemian Toga' in bold italic green letters. There was no real reason for the word 'Toga', Angel just thought it was cool and Collins was just happy he won the color battle.

They were neighborhood favorites and well known to everyone. All the customers came in to say hello and just talk to Collins or Angel is there weren't too many people in. Sunday mornings were the most busy, and Wednesday evenings were usually the evenings Angel could get away with sitting on the counter feeding Collins strawberries without one disturbance.

Halfway through the month they closed the doors with a sign- "Back in a week! The owners". Collins had saved up quite a bit of money and bought a cheap car in late November, so they drove it up to New York (gas was cheap, why not?) and arrived in front of their friends building on Christmas Eve.

After grabbing a bag from the trunk, they climbed the stairs, arm in arm, and Collins slid the loft door open to reveal him and Angel as Santa and Mrs. Claus to everyone. There was laughter before anything else, and then they went in and hugged everyone.

Maureen was the first to grab onto Angel and kiss her cheek, smiling, giggling. "Oh my God honey you look fabulous and so . . .tan." She turned to Joanne, pouting like a very disappointed child. "Pookie! I wanna move down south!!!"

Angel laughed and thanked her as Joanne explained why she refused to be a lawyer in a southern state. She moved to hug Mimi, it was long, and very warm. She then moved to Roger, he seemed less vibrant than the last time she had seen him, so she touched his cheek and placed his hand into Mimi's. "Grow up." She said gently with a loving smile.

They had a small dinner together prepared from leftovers the entrepreneurs had brought and warmed up, and they stayed up for hours just talking about the last two or so months, the restaurant, Santa Fe itself. They went to bed at about 3 AM, Collins and Angel curled up on the floor nearest a space heater.

Angel stirred the next morning, started to giggle when she felt Collins rubbing his beard against her delicate neck. She turned to face him, smiling lovingly at him, taking his prickly face into her hands. "Baby, you need a trim."

"So do you. Do you know what today is?"

"Mmmmm," she looked at him, biting her bottom lip. "Christmas?"

He nodded happily and handed her a small, giftwrapped present. Her eyes grew wide and she looked at him. "Tommy, we agreed we wouldn't get each other anything this year!"

"I know," He smiled and shrugged. "So sue me."

She smiled and blushed, crawled to her bag and pulled a present slightly larger out, handed it to him. She saw the raised brows and smug smile so she stuck out her tongue. "Bite me, mister."

"I most certainly will, just not here!"

Angel opened hers and blinked, looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

He reached over her and turned it upside down. She gazed at it and blushed. "Ohhhh." She blinked again. "Collins, why the hell would you get me a pacifier?" She looked suggestively at him. "You didn't. . ."

"No, no, no." He shook his head. "Maria Velez."

"The pregnant girl in high school?"

He nodded. "We've been talking since we moved there, and she agreed to give us her baby when it's born. To raise as our own."

Angel took a deep, disbelieving breath. "No!"

He smiled. "Yes."

Her eyes were watery, but she was smiling, of that, he could be sure. "I'm . . . I'm gonna be a. . . a mommy?" She asked unsteaduly, blinking back tears of excitement. Collins just smiled and kissed his lips softly, letting his linger there for a moment. "We're gonna be parents, baby. Both of us."

Angel giggled and nodded for him to open his present. "Well now I feel like it's nothing but go ahead and open it." Collins gave her a look and then smiled, slowly opened the present and smiled up at her, caught between giant peals of sudden laughter.

He was holding a pair of boxers with computers printed all over them and words 'Home of my joystick'. He was enthralled and kissed her lovingly, pulling her into his lap just to feel her body closer to his, warmer, free to his hands and their need to hold her.

Angel broke the kiss first. "So just to make this clear, it's _our_ joystick, riiight?"

"Oh baby, let's go as far as to saying it's. . ."

"Hey! You guys were supposed to wait to open presents!"

Angel blushed and leant her face to rest her cheek to Collins chest. "My bad, sorry Maureen."

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	4. Chapter 4

_Another Year_

_CohenTheKitty_

_Chapter Four_

_When I'm Sad, You're A Clown_

_AN- This chapter contains something happening to Angel that I would never wish on her, and is there merely for dramatic purpose. I love Angel, you all know that._

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The pair returned to Santa Fe on schedule and re-opened Bohemian Toga to their loving customer and many friends. They continued to serve and entertain, chat with and befriend the hundreds of people that came into the restaurant every week, including Maria, the senior pregnant with the baby Collins and Angel planned to adopt. Angel quickly converted their guest room into a nursery with expert timing, and grew more and more anxious as Maria's due date drew nearer.

On one sunny, mild day in February, several days after Valentine's Day Angel was flipping pancakes on the griddle when the phone began to ring. She bit her lip, heavily concentrated on the task at hand. "Tom? Grab the phone, would ya?"

There was silence, other than the phone continuing to ring.

Angel groaned in frustration. "TOM!" She listened, it rang and she heard Collins out in the other room, laughing and kidding around with someone. She grabbed the phone off of the wall with one hand, trying to continue to flip hotcakes with her other one. "Bohemian Toga?"

"Hello, I'm looking for Thomas Collins or Angel Schunard. . ."

"Angel speaking." She said a little sharply, spatula slipping slowly from her sweaty fingers.

"Uh, yes. Miss Schunard, I'm calling because Maria Velez was brought into the hospital this morning with labor pains, it appears she's going to have the baby you signed to adopt today. It's ideal that you . . ."

Angel was breaking a sweat concentrating on holding the spatula until she heard about Maria, it slipped from her fingers and her hand fell forward right onto the smooth surface of the griddle, making a hissing sound. She screamed in absolute agony and fall back onto her butt, cradling the hand, phone hanging off the wall with the social worker growing increasingly frustrated.

Collins ran in and cried out when he saw her sitting on the floor, hand clutched to her chest. She pointed to the phone despite her pain and he grabbed it. "Hello? I'm sorry I. . .what? This is Thomas Collins! She just burnt herself, well yes, we will be there. Goodbye!" He hung the phone up and pulled her onto her feet.

"Come on, baby. We need to get you to the hospital."

"Maria. . ."

"I'll stay with Maria while you get that worked on." He said gently, ushering people out before locking up and driving her to Santa Maria's Hospital, where he checked her into the burn unit and hurried over the Maternity.

A long while later Angel joined him, wig removed, face clean of makeup, the chef's "uniform" she wore hiding any femininity in her, making her look more and more like the man she had never wanted to be. He sat by Collins and he took his good hand, kissed the back. "Are you ok?"

He nodded, fingers lacing tightly with Collins'. "The doctor said it's bad but it's nothing that wont heal, I have to put this stuff on it every day and re-wrap it all the time and all kinds of fun stuff. It looks really, really gross." He remarked with a nod. "Maria?"

"She went into delivery not too long ago. It should be any moment."

The door to the room Collins was staring at opened and a doctor walked out, clothing bloody, face tired. A female doctor, young, white, with dark curly hair and dark eyes, but a kind smile. She moved to them. "Mr Collins, you must be Miss Schunard."

Angel was surprised to be regarded as a woman out of drag and smiled, nodded lightly. "Yes."

A soft sigh, heavy hearted and long. "Well I have good and bad news. Miss Velez gave birth to a healthy baby boy." She said softly. "She also gave birth to a little girl, but I'm afraid she was stillborn, and there was nothing that we could do."

Angel's half smile vanished and his eyes filled immediately with tears, he looked at the doctor and then Collins, today was not a good day. He leant her face into his chest and cried quietly for a few moments, but shortly after the doctor left she returned with a blue bundle and Collins rubbed his back. "Look, Angel. Look, baby."

Angel sat up and looked, his breath caught. The doctor laid a perfect, beautiful, sweet little baby boy into his arms and he smiled again, looked down at his little face. "Oh my goodness." He smiled softly and Collins leant over his shoulder, smiled and kissed the back of his neck.

"See our beautiful little baby Angel? Don't cry anymore, be happy for him."

"Oh, I am happy!" Angel professed, kissing his tiny little face. "I am so very very happy!"

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"Collins, you sure this kid isn't yours?" Collins looked up from Angel's smiling face to Roger as he leant over the small bassinet in their "living room". "He looks kinda like you, you know, when you're stoned."

WHAP!

Roger rubbed the back of his head. "Ow! Thank you again, Mimi for putting me into my place!"

"Serves you RIGHT!" Mimi said with a scowel, then smiled down at the baby. "He is absolutely perfect! Yes he is! Oh look at those pretty little hands!"

Joanne sat down next to Angel and took her hand, offered her a soft smile. "So the adoption went smoothly? No hitches at all, nothing strange went on?" WHAP. Joanne turned and looked at Maureen who was frowning down at her. "What??"

"You promised! No legal stuff while we're in New Mexico!"

"All right, all right, all right."

"Mimi, get your fat butt outta there so Mark can film Noah!" WHAP. "Don't call me fat you big fat jerk, it's all your _fault_!!!" Roger ushered Mimi's waddling form to sit down. "Yes, yes, we've been through this. Now sit."

Mark tried desperately not to laugh hysterically as he lifted his camera over the bassinet. "Noah Sean Collins, four months old, mastering keeping his nookie in his mouth for more than ten minutes without accidentally spitting it out. He's the first baby to proud parents Angel and Collins, a fine specimen of youth and beauty. . ."

Angel smiled over at Collins and placed her hand over his tenderly, where it laid on her shoulder. They shared a brief kiss and then returned to watch their visiting friends bond with their new son, any sadness in losing his sister, whom they named Paz, aside, yet not forgotten.

They were so happy to be moving into the future, that the past mattered less and less. No day but today.

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Reviews please? Thanks to all who have reviewed thus far! 


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